Primal Scream slammed for showing 'antisemitic' images at London gig

Primal Scream have come under fire for showing allegedly antisemitic images on stage at a London gig.

The rock band, whose frontman Bobby Gillespie has long been an outspoken critic of Israel, showed images of a Jewish Star of David merged with a Swastika - the emblem of the Nazis, who killed 6million Jewish people during the holocaust.

The Jewish charity Community Security Trust said it had reported the band to police for antisemitism while The Roundhouse music venue told the Daily Mail it would be launching an investigation. 

Trust

The images came on screen during the already controversial song ‘Swastika Eyes’ which was written in 1999 about American foreign policy.

As the band played the song, footage of a devastated Gaza was shown on screen. Then images of a Star of David – made up of two triangles and representing the Jewish people for centuries – were shown, interspersed with a Swastika.

Photos of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, other Israeli politicians, Donald Trump and Sir Keir Starmer then appeared with the Star of David/ Swastika image twirling in their eyes. The segment ended with the words, ‘Our Government is complicit in genocide’.

One 47-year-old Jewish fan of the band, who asked not to be named, said he had to leave the concert temporarily as the images so chilled him.

He told the Daily Mail: ‘I knew it would be a political concert and that there would likely to be something on Gaza because Bobby Gillespie is sympathetic towards the Palestinians, so I was already a bit nervous.

‘But when I saw this image - pure racism - I felt sick.

‘Obviously, there are a million conversations about what is and what isn’t antisemitism, and I know some people get frustrated because they feel they can’t show any sympathy with Palestinians without being called antisemitic.

‘But using the Jewish star, not even in Israel’s colours, with a Swastika, isn’t even vaguely a grey area. It is pure antisemitism.

‘I just thought about my grandparents, who were both Holocaust survivors, and what they would think about me paying money to see a band that would do this. There are a lot of things they could say about the war which would be powerful but this belittles any argument they might have.

‘When I saw the image, I had to go out of the concert hall for a bit. It killed the whole gig for me. I have been a fan for their music for a long time – no longer.’

Equating Jews and the Nazis, who wiped out two-thirds of Europe’s Jews, is antisemitism according to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition, which is used by the UK government.

‘Merging swastikas with Stars of David is unambiguously racist,’ says Alex Hearn, director of the campaigning group Labour Against Antisemitism. ‘It takes the symbol under which Jews were murdered and uses it to incite more hatred against Jews - casting Jewish symbols as representations of evil itself.

‘This isn’t protest art; it’s dehumanising propaganda that has historically preceded violence against Jewish communities. That this can happen at a public concert shows how deeply we’ve been failed. Police and CPS inaction has normalised what should be prosecuted as racial hatred.’

The Primal Scream concert is the latest in which fashionable support for Palestinians has appeared to cross the line into antisemitism or extremism.

The punk rap duo Bob Vylan are still under police investigation for leading a Glastonbury audience in the cry, ‘Death, death to the IDF’ and railing against ‘Zionist’ bosses which was screened on the BBC iPlayer.

In September, police dropped a charge against Kneecap rapper Liam Og O hAnnaidh who had been accused of displaying a flag in support of terrorist group Hezbollah because paperwork had not been signed in time.

The Jewish charity Community Security Trust said it had reported the band to police.

A spokesperson said: ‘CST is appalled by the grossly antisemitic image displayed at Primal Scream.

‘Entwining a Star of David with a swastika implies that Jews are Nazis and risks encouraging hatred of Jews.

‘There needs to be an urgent investigation by the venue and the promoter about how this happened and we will be reporting to the police.’

A spokesperson for The Roundhouse said: ‘We have been made aware of alleged use of content that was screened during a performance by Primal Scream at the Roundhouse on Monday 8th December.

‘We are investigating this matter but have not as yet been able to substantiate the claim.

‘We take any instance of antisemitism extremely seriously. Any acts of hatred, discrimination, or prejudice are entirely unacceptable and have no place in our community or spaces.’